


Happily Ever After

by ishipitsobad



Series: Always and Only [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Add more later - Freeform, F/M, Family Fluff, Insecurity, Jealousy, Kids growing up, M/M, Mpreg, Pregnant Sex, i'm not good with tags, no puns intended, puppy dog pout, uh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-22
Updated: 2014-11-20
Packaged: 2018-02-22 04:05:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2493755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishipitsobad/pseuds/ishipitsobad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ten years after the end of Please Be Happy, Castiel and Dean have moved on and like their pups, they've grown into the people they are today. Tag along on the crazy and wild ride that is the Winchesters' day-to-day life.</p><p>Due to author's complex issues, this might not be quite as satisfying as the prequel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Getting Mad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex gets into trouble. Ethan and Emma, unlike Castiel, don't really care.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I said fluffy one-shots, I really meant fluffy one-SHORTS. Most of the chapters are going to be really short, so please don't expect too much!

Alex scowled at the ground and kicked it, lower lip already jutting out in a telltale pout that he inherited from Dean. Castiel tried to keep his eyes narrowed at his youngest son, but it was incredibly difficult when he looked like a miniature, dark-haired version of his mate. His mate, who was being an assbutt and kicking back in a chair, watching the proceedings with the air of someone who felt that he was clearly not involved.

Ethan was sitting on the floor of the living room, entertaining the starter crawling hazard that was his little sister Emma by letting her climb all over his skinny frame. At eleven, Ethan was all gangly legs and arms, not entirely sure where to put his elbows and knees without bruising them. Emma didn't seem to mind his knobbly joints, shrieking with delight as she found pleasure in using her oldest brother as a tree. Neither pup cared for the fiasco unfolding in the kitchen, where Alex was currently facing the consequences of taking Emma to play with Alapmi. Alapmi, who was nineteen hands high and had a kick strong enough to break half the bones in the average person's body.

Castiel just about had an apoplectic fit when he found Emma enthusiastically hugging the foreleg of the destrier, who appeared monstrously large in comparison to her tiny body, and was regarding her with all the attitude of one who was inspecting and analyzing an undocumented species. Alex had somehow scrambled up onto Alapmi's back, and was pretending to be Dean, hollering like the hellion he was.

Castiel's scream of terror at the sight of his two youngest in such close proximity to potential danger had brought John and Dean running (Ethan was thankfully preoccupied with the trunk of new books Sam had procured from the palace library), and although Dean vehemently defended Alapmi's gentle and patient nature, that hadn't warded off Castiel's near meltdown. 

Back in the house, John discreetly excused himself to avoid being caught in the crossfire, while Castiel tried to figure out how to get across to their son the dangers of being around living things that were over ten times their size. Alex hotly protested that Alapmi wouldn't hurt them, and that was when Castiel's face went frighteningly blank. He asked, in a voice so soft it would have disillusioned anyone else to the anger simmering behind it, exactly how Alex had found out that particular nugget of information. Alex realized his slip-up, and screwed his mouth shut.

So there they were, with Alex trying to pull the huge, tearful green eyes look on Castiel while said parent attempted to hold on to his righteous fury. After a long staredown that really only lasted a grand total of one whole minute, Castiel closed his eyes and sighed.

  "No training with your dad or granddad for a week," Castiel leveled a stern look at his youngest son, whose mouth promptly opened to illustrate just how unfair that was but was cut off with Castiel's added weightage of an arched eyebrow, which more or less said "do you want me to go on?".

The whelp gave a pout much too similar to Dean's when he was denied something he wanted very much (i.e. intercourse in the most inappropriate places, such as the kitchen) for the boy to be anyone but Dean's son, and Castiel could already feel himself weakening. But no, he had to get his point across--damn it.

  "Fine, three days no training," Castiel rolled his eyes. Alex grinned and threw his arms around his dad.

  "Mind your papa's tummy," Dean reminded the overexcited pup, who backtracked just in time to give a much gentler hug to Castiel's swollen belly, since the girth had already exceeded the span of Alex's arms. All the pups had expressed great fascination with the idea of a new pup joining their ranks (Emma was too young to understand very much except that her time as the baby of the family was fast coming to an end, and that Papa was fast beginning to be unable to hold her in his arms), and the twins wanted another baby sister to spoil, much to their parents' amusement.

  "Love you, papa," Alex gave him a sunny beam, too bright for anyone else to tell that he'd just been sulking not two minutes ago. His temperament was mercurial and as changeable as the wind, and Castiel could almost feel the gray hairs at his temples.

  "Off you go," Castiel patted his bottom, sending him careening into the living den to find his siblings.

He sensed Dean standing up behind him, and smiled when the Alpha slowly wrapped his arms around his waist from behind. Dean's fingers steepled over the mound of his belly, and his lips brushed against his ear, sending a delicious shiver running through Castiel's body and curling up in his groin like the spark of a warm flame. Ten years of being mates, with three pups between them and another on the way, and still Castiel felt like a virgin whenever Dean touched him, even in the most innocent of ways.

  "You're so gorgeous when you're mad," Dean nipped his ear, voice low and possessive, almost a growl.

Castiel snorted. Honestly, the things Dean found attractive about him always eluded logic. "Perhaps I should get mad again about the lack of honey-soaked fruits in the pantry?"

Dean stiffened, then groaned at the mention of on of Castiel's latest cravings. "You might get sweet-sickness if you eat too much of that."

  "Blame your spawn," Castiel replied without any heat, rubbing his distended stomach while maintaining an air of grouchiness. "It's the one asking for more."

Attention now fully diverted to the unborn pup driving its Omega father mad at 16 weeks gestation, Dean practically cooed over the bump and completely forgot that they were in the middle of a very serious discussion about his incapability as an Alpha to care for his pregnant Omega by providing for his cravings.

Castiel felt the onset of a tantrum coming on, made worse by his fluctuating hormones and scowled. Dean finally noticed when he turned his head to kiss his mate's cheek, and he made a noise of frustrated surrender. "Fine, fine. I'll get the damn sweets. But only if I get something in return."

Castiel craned his neck to look at his mate's face, and began to wonder if the sweets were worth the mischief already glinting in Dean's eyes.

* * *

It was really no great price to pay when the sweetness of honeyed apple slices were still on his tongue and Dean was slowly but surely thrusting in his huge cock into him. Though he would never say it out loud, Castiel adored having sex with Dean. Despite his protests about inappropriate venues and timings, Castiel was still inherently an Omega that naturally craved love and affection from his Alpha. So he would only make cursory noises of protest when Dean cornered him in the still-green wheat fields, the budding garden Castiel tended to in the back, the kitchen before dinner (Castiel had long since come to terms with the fact that Dean was the better chef when he could only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner), the copse of trees nearby where their pups often liked to escape as much as their parents did (though for entirely different reasons). He loved having the rough, frantic sex of his heats, the quick one-times when they had to be somewhere else, the passionate and evenly-paced copulation inbetween his heats, and the slow and sweet lovemaking when he was with pup.

Dean was practically worshipping his body, tracking soft kisses all over his belly and the inside of his thighs, sometimes sucking hard until a little poppy-red bruise was blooming there. His knot, just beginning to burgeon, was brushing against Castiel's rim with every thrust, and Castiel could vaguely register himself saying something along the lines of "need your knot in me". If he wasn't so aroused and so overloaded with pregnancy hormones, he might have been embarrassed. But as it was, he was practically snarling for it. Despite his gravid state increasingly reducing his agility, he managed to lock his ankles at the small of Dean's back, effectively forcing him to push his cock deeper into Castiel's entrance.

  "Easy, Cas," Dean's voice was tinged with awe and lust. "Don't wanna hurt the pup."

  "Shut up and knot me already," Castiel whined and arched as Dean obliged, pushing his swelling knot past his tender rim and locking them together. The sensation of being given what his body craved made stars explode behind Castiel's eyes, and dragged a breathy half-wail of pleasure from his lungs. His body careened off the edge of control, and his own small cock shot thin ribbons of impotent spunk all over the bottom of his pregnant belly.

Dean was not far behind him, particularly with the way the warm and wet walls of Castiel's insides were undulating and clenching down on his shaft, teasing him towards the abyss of relief. He grunted, moving his hips in circular, shallow movements that elicited mewls from his writhing mate, prolonging Castiel's climax and then ejaculating his hot load inside him. In comparison to Castiel (think dessert spoons), Dean had a lot more cum to give (think half a barrel), his biology asserting that he should use every opportunity to make his mate pup. Even when both of them had collapsed in exhausted bliss, blood tingling deliciously, Dean's knot was still locking them together and his cock was still stubbornly attempting to fill Castiel to the brim with his semen. They both knew that when Dean's knot released and was flaccid enough to be removed easily from his hole, the mix of Castiel's slick and Dean's cum would come flooding out as if a dam were broken, spoiling the sixth set of sheets they'd had to put on the bed in the last two days.

  "You make a great parent, Cas," Dean kissed his mate's slightly-sweaty temple, turning them on their sides with Dean spooning Castiel from behind until his knots gave. 

  "One of us has to do the job," Castiel muttered, mind already hazy with sleep in the midst of post-coital euphoria.

Dean chuckled and nosed at his mate's scent gland, breathing in the sweet and familiar scent, complete with an orangey hint of ripeness and mellow tones of amazing sex. Their pups were sleeping upstairs, the twins sharing the attic that had been converted into their bedroom-slash-playroom, while Emma had her own little room on the second floor, next to her old nursery that was being prepared for the next Winchester pup. Castiel insisted that it was going to be a boy this time, and after Emma and the twins, Dean didn’t need any convincing to know his mate was going to be right.

As they dozed off, Dean’s cock easing up on the volume and the frequency with which he was spurting his load into his mate, they clasped their hands over Castiel’s swollen stomach and smiled when they felt the fluttering of a kick beneath their palms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DO I GO ON (and what should I name the next pup?)
> 
> PS I'm thinking of doing a High School/College/through their life AU. What do you think? Should it be ABO dynamics with mpreg again?


	2. Jealous, Much?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castiel is heavily pregnant, exhausted raising adolescent twins and a little girl, and missing his noticeably-absent mate. Then a pretty brunette Omega turns up at his doorstep with a son, mentioning that she's a friend of Dean's.
> 
> Of course, as with all romantic tropes, things go to hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I owe you all so much, and yet I can never quite deliver-- on time, or up to expectations.

At 26 weeks, Castiel felt more like one of the rubber balls his sons licked to kick around than an actual sentient being on two legs. Getting out of bed in the mornings was turning into a losing battle as his centre of gravity was newly realigned around his swollen belly, and there were three rambunctious pups who demanded sustenance piled around him, shrieking at the tops of their voices. Dean was often being called away to deal with problems in town, so often that Castiel was beginning to lock the bedroom door and force him to sleep on the couch out of hormone-induced spite for not being there when Alex started throwing food at dinner or when Emma wet her bed during her afternoon nap. John was in Eden, visiting Sam and a recently-pupped Jess, so he couldn't offer any aid either. Castiel was up to his eyes in two hyperactive pups, one emotionally sensitive pup, one unborn but already raring to go, wildly fluctuating hormones and an absent mate. His self esteem taking more and more damage every time he stood in front of the mirror to see his too-round ass and gigantic stomach with its horrendously obvious stretch marks were not helping much, either.

So when a lovely, unmarked, brunette Omega turned up on his doorstep with her young son, saying she was a friend of Dean's, he was understandably leaning towards furious hysterics.

He hadn't washed his face, his house was a mess, there was something suspicious on the dining table that might be alive and his three children were currently engaged in a shouting contest with inappropriate words no doubt picked up from one grandfather and one absent father who was going to be castrated to the minute he stepped through the front door.

  "I'm Lisa," the young woman had laughter lines at the corners of her beautiful dark eyes, and her smile was nervous but sincere. "Lisa Braeden. And this is my son Ben."

Castiel stared at her, then her outstretched hand, then her son. His lack of reply only made the silence more painfully awkward, and she dropped her hand, looking somewhat unnerved. 

  "I'm a friend of Dean's" she hedged, running a hand through her long, dark mane. He could smell her floral scent, and imagined that  _certain_  Alphas might find it alluring. Certain Alphas who were conspicuously missing from the crack of dawn till evening.

Castiel just stared at her, and could already see Dean finding comfort and pleasure in her slim curves, full breasts, lush hair. He didn't need a mirror to know he looked like a wreck in comparison. A hormonal, fat and weary wreck.

  "If this is a bad time--" she was already stepping back, and Castiel could feel his wolf snarling inside, demanding that he defend his hearth from this homewrecker. Was the son at her side Dean's offspring? He looked to be about...Castiel's blood ran cold. He looked about Ethan and Alex's age, maybe a little older. Perhaps she was an old lover, and then finding Castiel not as satisfying, he'd gone back to her. Was she here to ask Castiel to break the bond with Dean so she could have him?

  "Papa, Alex bit me!"

The half-angry, half-tearful wail sliced through the awkward silence like a blade, and Castiel sighed as he turned to attend to his eldest.

  "Look!" Ethan thrust his forearm up for inspection, sounding aggrieved and indignant. Sure enough, there was a reddening crescent-shaped bite mark with excessive slobber on it near his wrist.

Alex came tumbling after him, looking for all the world as righteously furious, wanting to justify himself. "Only because you called me a dickwad!"

Castiel pinched his nose bridge. He was fast on his way to getting a migraine. "Ethan, don't call your brother four-letter words that aren't his given name. Alex, don't bite your brother. Where did you two put Emma?"

The tension between the feuding brothers immediately dissolved into palpable guilt, the twins exchanging nervous looks. Castiel's voice took on an edge of steel as he repeated his question.

  "In the closet," Ethan muttered.

  "She's got her blankie," Alex added unhelpfully.

Castiel leveled a look at the twins, and they slunk away to retrieve their little sister, mumbling apologies and intermittently shoving each other as they went upstairs. He belatedly recalled the woman on his porch with her son, who looked remarkably like a younger, brunette version of Dean in a leather jacket and fitted boots.

  "I'm afraid Dean's not home," Castiel said, not bothering to hide his displeasure. His mother, may she never rest in peace, would frown. "He usually isn't, at this time of the day."

With that, he slammed the door shut and went to see if the twins had gotten Emma out of the closet. He stopped short in the doorway of their playroom, feeling an odd emotion rising up in his throat and choking him when he saw the three pups all tuckered out and curled up around each other on the rug, limbs tangled in a slew of blankets and snoring softly. His heart felt like it was being squeezed by a mercilessly sadistic hand, and not in the heartburn kind of way. He had not felt the absence of his Alpha so keenly since...since eleven years ago when Dean led the pack to Eden to fight Michael. He wrapped his arms around his torso, just resting above the swell of his belly, desperately wishing it hadn't come to this--the pups didn't even notice their other father's absence anymore, having gotten tired of asking a few days ago when all they got in answer was saddened uncertainty. They had stopped asking for Dean in the mornings when they woke up and the evenings when they went to bed. Alex, who'd always been closest to Dean, was starting to compete for Castiel's attention, much to the dismay of his other siblings. The boys were getting antsy from the lack of training sessions with their Alpha sire.

Castiel didn't want to know what would happen when the one kicking him from the inside was born, and had to grow up with one parent never around. He rubbed a hand over it, and closed his eyes as he tried to think of the last time Dean was around to do the same thing, to hug him from behind and lull their unborn pup with his touch.

He thought they were in love, and Castiel had to scrub away the tears that escaped. He thought that after all they'd been through, Dean loved him as much as he did.

Clearly not.

Castiel awkwardly knelt down next to his brood and tucked the blankets around them so they wouldn't catch a chill. He headed to his own room, and locked the door behind him.

* * *

  "You're a fucking idiot," Jo declared, crossing her arms.

Dean stopped hammering to scowl at her. "Do you want me to help or not?"

Jo ignored him. "You sent an unbonded Omega and her son (who just so happens to share your sense of fashion) to check on Castiel while you're out most of the day and not telling him you're helping to build my house? I give you 100 points for completely flawed asshole logic."

Dean threw down the hammer, frustrated. "He won't even look at me, much less talk to me. For the love of--I've been sleeping on the sofa for more than a  _week_!"

Jo looked utterly unimpressed. "If I was Cas, you wouldn't even make it through the front door without a shotgun in your face."

  "And that's why you're mated to Ash," Dean pointed out.

They began bickering again, until a hesitant clearing of the throat interrupted their uncompromising argument.

  "Hey Lis," Dean sighed, swiping a hand over his mouth and chin. He gave Ben a forced smile, and the pup grinned, unaware of the atmosphere. "Hey Ben. How'd it go?"

Lisa looked like she wanted to swallow a porcupine. Or already had. "I can safely say your mate hates me, and that you won't be sleeping on a bed any time soon."

Dean groaned. "I asked you to help me make things better, not make it worse!"

Lisa arched an eyebrow at him. "I didn't even get a chance to offer any Omega-Omega comfort. He slammed the door in my face after telling me you're never home at this time of the day. I think he might have misunderstood something."

Dean stared at her uncomprehendingly.

  "He thinks you and I are having an affair," Lisa clarified.

Jo didn't bother suppressing a snicker, and Dean wanted to punch something.

When he first started working on Jo's new place, he genuinely didn't think Castiel would mind, so he never said why he was always late for dinner. Then the pups started complaining that he was never there for bedtime stories, and Castiel started locking him out of their room. He never got to have a proper conversation with Castiel, and he started leaving earlier in the mornings in hopes of coming back earlier in the evening, in time to get a word in with Castiel and to maybe even help with bath time and tell the pups a bedtime story.

He never imagined that things would spiral out of control to this extent.

   "I really think you ought to go home and smooth things over," Lisa bit her lip. "He was really angry. And your pups were wearing him out, I could tell. Are you sure you should be away from him when he's so close to birthing?"

He clenched his jaw. That was another bone of contention with himself. Every single one of his instincts was yelling at him to stay close to his mate, but winter was coming soon and he had a duty to help the people of his town, which unfortunately included Jo and Ash. His wolf was conflicted, but he couldn't very well leave his friends to squat in Ellen's extra room over the Roadhouse all through winter.

  "Go home, Dean," Jo nudged his shoulder. "We'll manage. Hell, we'll rope in the next person who passed by and maybe see if they're a faster worker than you are."

Dean shot her a look that said she'd have better luck trying to shoot a moving target blind and gagged, before changing into his wolf in one quick leap and bounding away.

The road home was fortunately brief when his four-legged stride ate up the distance with very little effort. His wolf was a little upset that he had neglected his duty to his pack, but thrilled to be going home to his mate. His pregnant mate, and their pups, who were noticeably absent from the first floor of the house when he came in through the door. There was a stillness to the air that unnerved him, and he climbed the stairs with a trepidation he was not familiar with. Then his heart warmed and a smile spread uncontrollably on his face when he passed by the playroom and found his pups all curled up in a like on the floor, napping away. He worried that they might be uncomfortable, but the rug was soft and they were all well-tucked in (even if Alex had a fist dangerously close to Ethan's cheek and Emma was drooling on her long-suffering stuffed bumble bee). He knew Castiel had made sure they wouldn't catch a cold but spreading the blankets such that they wouldn't wriggle out easily from under them, and he felt a pang of regret and self-loathing that he hadn't been home to do the job. Castiel's mobility and agility was beginning to disappear as the pup grew inside him, so he could easily guess how hard the last few days must have been on him.

He knelt down and kissed each pup on the forehead, and grinned when Alex stirred.

  "Daddy?" His second oldest mumbled, sleep blurring his speech.

  "Go back to sleep, A.J.," he murmured, smoothing the dark hair away from his son's forehead.

Alex mumbled something that vaguely sounded like "Papa sad" before turning over on his side and starting to snore again. Dean stiffened. Castiel must have been extremely upset if the pups could pick up on it, wrapped up in their own little world of growing up as they were.

He drew the curtains and mopped the saliva from Emma's cheeks so they wouldn't be chapped when she woke up, and went off in search for his mate.

* * *

Castiel was thinking about where to go when the knock on the door startled him out of his misery. He was lying on the bed, resigning himself to the fact that he was a) probably never going to be able to get up again without a lever and pulley system and b) no longer Dean's "sweetheart". No, that position went to the pretty brunette with nice long hair and no stretch marks.

He scowled at the door. "Ethan, the salve is in the same place as it always is."

There was a pause, in which Castiel hoped the pups were dealing with whatever fiasco had gone down, until the door was forcefully unlocked and Dean stood in the threshold, looking like a madman with his expression bordering on hysterical and his hair darkened and matted with sweat.

  “Dean?” Castiel was too stunned by his mate’s appearance to remember that he was upset.

Dean closed the distance between them with two bow-legged strides, mouth set in a faint frown and viridescent eyes hooded with emotion Castiel couldn’t place, not when the air was taut with tension and there were important words going unspoken. Castiel backed away from Dean as he approached, or as much as he could with the headboard of the bed at his back and the heavy swell of his girth at his front. But Dean, instead of realizing Castiel’s rejection, took it as a challenge and growled low and guttural in his chest, crawling onto the bed and towering over Castiel’s body even on his hands and knees, effectively pinning the pregnant Omega down with no way out.

  “Cas,” Dean rumbled, nosing at his mate’s scent gland and revelling in the ripe, comforting scent that just screamed _Dean’s Omega_.

Then Castiel’s hands were at his chest, pushing and shoving and his scent was turning sour with unhappiness and misery. Dean snarled, not entirely aware that _he_ was the cause of his Omega’s distress.

  “Get off me!” Castiel tried to roll away, but Dean’s arms on either side of his body and his gravid belly obstructed his attempts to do so.

  “Cas?” Dean seemed to regain his human awareness, rising from the swallowing tides of his wolf’s possessiveness like a ghost. “Cas, what’s wrong?”

  “Get off me,” Castiel hated that his voice sounded thick with tears, that his hormones were taking the reins and turning him into an emotional wreck for absolutely no reason other than the fact that his Alpha was cheating on him with a perky brunette Omega.

  “Sweetheart—“ Dean’s words were cut off by a pillow in the face and Castiel took the opportunity to scramble away and stagger out the door. He fled into the pup’s room, and locked the door behind him just as Dean crashed into it.

This, of course, woke up the pups, who gazed up at him with eyes all bleary with sleep and entirely Dean. Even the one in his belly was rolling and somersaulting, kicking out in displeasure at being bothered.

  “Papa?” Ethan spoke first, voice tremulous with confusion and worry.

  “Cas!” Dean called out, his own voice muffled by the barrier of wood. “Cas, please!”

  “Is that Daddy?” Alex got to his feet, and yawned. “Why’s Daddy shouting? Is he angry?”

  “Oh, baby,” Castiel gathered his pups into his arms and tried to suppress his sobs.

Dean rest his head on the other side of the door, sighing heavily. Damn it, Jo was right. Even Lisa was right, and she barely knew Castiel. He’d been a right jerk about not telling Castiel what he’d been up to.

  “Cas,” Dean said to the door, hands pressed flat against it in a semblance of supplication. “Listen. I’ve been working late trying to help build Ash and Jo’s house in town. Winter’s coming, and they needed to get it done quick, so I—“

The door swung open, and Castiel was glaring at him and hitting him with fists that hurt his dignity more than it did physically.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Castiel was half-crying, half-yelling while their pups stood in the doorway, wide-eyed and utterly bewildered. “Why did you leave me alone and let me think you—“

Dean caught his wrists and tugged him into his arms. Castiel refused to yield at first, but eventually his biology ruled out over human pride and he was wringing his fists in the lapels of Dean’s leather jacket, tears running down his face and turning him into a blotchy mess. It hurt Dean’s heart on a visceral level to see his mate so distressed, and the fact that he was the reason for it only made the pain ache more.

  “Hey,” Dean kissed Castiel’s crown, desperate to alleviate and diffuse his unease. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. Please, don’t cry.”

  “You ignominious, abhorrent—“ Castiel was spluttering, and Dean winced; the Omega only used big words to insult people when he was _really_ worked up. The vehemence, coupled with the upset tears, was doing a big number on Dean’s wolf. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to shoot himself in the foot for being such a dick, or rip out his own throat for being neglectful.

  “I’m sorry,” was pretty much the only thing he could say without screwing it up more, so he repeated it and imbued his sincere regret into the words, all the while stroking his mate’s back and making noises of comfort between apologies.

The pups stared up at the spectacle with varying reactions: Ethan looked hesitant and troubled, Alex seemed mostly bewildered and frightened, and Emma just yawned.

Castiel finally calmed down—or at least, he wasn’t crying so much as he was sniffling, eyes red and cheeks streaked with dried tears. Dean continued making soothing noises anyway, his wolf projecting assuasive pheromones in natural reaction to his mate’s distress. He gently held the back of Castiel’s neck, such that his fingers were rubbing the sensitive bond bite scar and Castiel’s nose was buried in his scent gland to take in the maximum amount of his pheromones. The pups eventually lost interest in whatever was taking place between their parents, once the tension in the air had diminished and they were no longer in its thrall. They resumed their roughhousing, but their awareness that not all was entirely well with their parents was made apparent through their unusually hushed noise levels.

Dean’s heart was aching with a kind of agony that was unfamiliar to him in a whole different spectrum; he’d dealt with Castiel’s self-loathing, misery, fear and anger—but never before had he faced Castiel’s insecurity about their _bond_. The pain that accompanied the potential risk to their bond was different from when Dean had faced real external threats like Michael and Metatron, and only more visceral because the risk came from the agitation that had transpired _between_ them.

He had so much grovelling to do.

  “W-why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Castiel asked at length, voice broken by harsh sniffling and heaving inhalations. He kept his face hidden in the curve where Dean’s neck sloped into his shoulder, mouth pressed against the lapel of his jacket and face still startlingly hot. Whether it was from his crying jag or the natural side-effect of gestation, Dean couldn’t be sure.

  “It was just part of my usual duties,” Dean sighed, rubbing circles into Castiel’s neck and kissing his mate’s ear between sentences. “I would’ve told you about it earlier, like I usually do when I come back, but I always got held up doing last minute checks on whether the structure of Jo’s house was stable enough to last through the night without collapsing. By the time I came home, you and the pups were already in bed. Then I’d be out early again the next morning because I thought ‘if I go to work earlier, I’ll end earlier’. But obviously, that was just bull, because I wound up thinking that the more I worked, the sooner the house would be built and I could spend more time with you and the pups. So I worked early, overtime… and somewhere along the way I completely forgot to tell you about it like a real dumbass.”

Castiel gave a small smile at Dean’s self-directed insult, and that eased some of Dean’s anxiety.

  “But we’re almost done,” Dean quickly continued, before things got awkward. “I mean, the structure’s solid, and the walls are all filled in. All that’s left is the inner walls and the roof. I give it about another two weeks or so, if nothing comes up.”

Castiel seemed to nod, and said something so quietly that even Dean’s Lycan hearing couldn’t pick up on it. He asked Castiel to repeat it, confused.

  “Who’s Lisa?” Castiel whispered, scowling at Dean’s jacket and high color flooding his already warm cheeks.

Dean wished he could say that he was delighted by his mate’s jealousy, but he found his wolf sorely disappointed with itself for even giving his mate a reason to feel insecure. A real, true Alpha mate would never make his Omega doubt himself, much less cheat on his Omega.

  “She’s an old friend,” Dean murmured into Castiel’s crown, keeping his tone reassuring. He figured honesty was the best way to go about this. “I…well, I used to…um, get involved with her. But I ended things between us a few years before the invitation for the tournament came. We’re just friends now.”

But the stiffness in Castiel’s shoulders didn’t dissolve. “Is Ben your son?”

Dean choked. “What?”

Castiel glared at his collarbone.

  “Ben’s not my son, Cas,” Dean gave a weak chuckle. “Don’t worry; I checked. Turns out I wasn’t the only one she was involved with. If I really liked her, I would’ve been pissed off, but I didn’t. Ben’s sire is some dude who didn’t stick around to exchange names after they’d had sex. I mean, sure, I helped Lisa raise Ben for a bit after he was born. It sucked, having a kid by yourself and being unbonded. And Ben was a great kid, didn’t deserve the shit he got for having an unbonded mom and a disappearing act of a dad.”

Castiel’s heart gave tight twist—he couldn’t imagine being unbonded and raising a kid by oneself. Lisa must have endured no small amount of stigma and disdain. And he’d snubbed her and slammed his door in her face.

  “Feeling better yet?” Dean asked, taking his chin so that they were face-to-face.

Castiel smiled, even though the redness of his eyes and his pink nose kind of negated some of its brightness. “Yes, Dean.”

Dean kissed him, the contours of his lips warm and familiar and molding itself to Castiel’s until it felt like they’d been carved from the same stone. The pup in his belly gave a resounding kick, startling them apart.

  “Hey, kiddo,” Dean grinned, going down on his knees so that his face was level with Castiel’s bump. Castiel smiled fondly, and covered Dean’s hands with his own where they rest on the sides of the swell of his stomach. “Were you good for your papa today?”

A tiny fist punched the skin under Dean’s left hand, and he laughed. Another boisterous, active pup was going to join their already overly-energetic and unruly brood. He wouldn’t be surprised if he was going to have more gray hair than his dad soon.

And honestly? He didn't give a damn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My game is weak, I know.


End file.
